“They have prison showers. You’re lucky we’re only staying here one night, otherwise you’d be sleeping with a dirty smelly man.” ~ Eric, Day 1
For those intrepid travelers accustomed to staying in hostels, this may not come as a surprise. For hostel neophytes like my husband and I, we were surprised to find that the men’s showers were indeed like a prison — one big open space with a bunch of shower heads. Yeah, not happening with this private man of mine. But let me backtrack a bit…
Day one of our walking holiday in Marin County, California, began with an instructive ride from the Oakland Airport. Our Lyft driver was a young man with his pants hanging halfway down to Mexico and listening to jazz. He told us he’d visited Louisiana but could never live there because our marijuana laws weren’t loose enough. [Eric and I are now looking at Google Maps to see how much longer this drive is.] But then this Oakland native began to expound all the reasons why we should spend time in his city and how it had everything San Francisco had. He gave us excellent pointers on hiking trails that only locals knew about. He told us he was a new dad, that he had majored in Economics, and he had some very deep thoughts about professional sports. Our ride over the Golden Gate Bridge to the Marin Headlands Hostel was over far too soon. When he dropped us off in the woods at a house that looked like an old psychiatric hospital, pulling his pants up to open the door, he was probably thinking “white people have some crazy ideas about vacation.” Then again, he might have just been thinking about his next weed break.
If you missed my first post about this trip, you may want to pause here and read Walking Holiday in Marin County.
The Marin Headlands Hostel was our first (and maybe our last) hostel experience. I actually enjoyed the experience, probably because it reminded me of how I grew up in a communal environment where families shared common spaces and shared meals. I knew this would be a stretch for Eric, however, so we booked a private room and he said he was fine with a shared bathroom since we’d only be there one night. That was of course until he visited the men’s bathroom and discovered that gender equality apparently doesn’t exist in hostels, at least not when it comes to privacy. The women’s bathroom had shower curtains 🙂
The building itself was full of character. It was a converted Army hospital and officer’s mansion from the early 1900s, surrounded by cypress trees and other historic military buildings. There was a large kitchen with industrial appliances, a common room with long tables and benches, mismatched cozy sofas, a piano and guitar, and an odd assortment of books (someone needs to donate some books to that hostel). What really surprised me (more than the communal shower) was how age diverse the guests were. I was expecting mostly 20 year olds, but there were retired couples, families with young children, a middle-aged man in a suit who looked like he was writing a novel, and couples our age speaking various languages. THAT is a major plus in my book and if the bathroom situation was just a little more private we’d make a repeat visit. 
Rodeo Beach was less than a mile from the hostel, so we walked the Lagoon Trail Loop which took us past a freshwater lagoon. A large flock of pelicans flapped their wings on the lagoon surface, creating a sound like a didgeridoo. The beach was small with black sand, fog, and red dirt cliffs rising on both sides that made for beautiful images. It was windy, barren and wild and I absolutely loved it!
We saw a coyote cross the road on our way to the beach and on our return that same coyote was waiting for us on the trail. Our years living near Cuero Texas brought Chupacabras to mind at this point. Now I realize this wasn’t a demon dog, but that coyote looked very skinny and mighty hungry. And he DID NOT BUDGE from the trail. He just stared at us. This is when I’m tempted to embellish the truth or simply fail to mention the coyote, but what fun would that be? These avid hikers had no idea what to do. 
Do you make eye contact? Do you make noise? Do you walk backwards?
